The Porsche Cayenne is currently built at the Volkswagen factory in the Slovak capital, Bratislava. The sports car manufacturer’s plan is to move production to Leipzig, but it still needs the approval of the works council to do so. The council must agree to a substantial wage cut because labor costs are lower in the Eastern European country, the German newspaper reports.
Until 2017, part of the production was still carried out in Leipzig. But then the Volkswagen subsidiary decided to move production entirely to Bratislava. Since the model first came onto the market in 2002, part of the production had already been done in Slovakia.
The sports car manufacturer wants to cut costs to improve financial performance. Porsche CEO Michael Leiters expects to reach an agreement with employee representatives on cost-cutting measures before the summer break in July, he said a week ago in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The automaker’s sales fell last year at their sharpest rate since 2009. Porsche is suffering from US import tariffs, lower demand in China, and increased competition in Europe.
